Chapter 7:
It wasn't uncommon for the ANBU to patrol the village in blind sight, should somebody catch glimpses of them in the first place.
The epitome of shinobi, the defenders to justice, etc, were all big titles attached to the Konoha ANBU Force, solely because they were the best.
They only failed 20 missions out of the 1,000,000+ they were assigned as a group per year.
That's a damn high success rate!
Not to mention, the 20 failures were usually done by an "abort mission call" if the task was too much to handle.
Only 3 times total, did the ANBU fail because of wipeout.
(Wipeout means that the operative task force got eliminated in case it wasn't obvious.)
All 3 of those times were because of the land of Rock, Iwa.
The first mission was fairly simple (for ANBU). Infiltrate the land of lightning and become high-level office workers for the Raikage.
On the way there, they had to split up so that they couldn't be traced to each other. Still standard protocol.
However, the Iwa ANBU, who do routine checks alongside the Konoha-Iwa border, caught one of the kANBU.
Using Iwa's technology, they effortlessly figured out the intentions of the ANBU. Without hesitation, they notified their infiltrations at the land of lightning.
From there, they notified the Raikage himself, as they were too in high level positions.
Things escalated and the now reduced group of two ANBU were surrounded by Raikage's ANBU from the front. And Iwa's ANBU from the back.
Obviously the ANBU couldn't hold out against other ANBU in much larger numbers (even if they were weaker in terms of average strength than Konoha's).
The relationship between the Raikage and Hokage soured exponentially. Luckily for Hiruzen, even the Raikage had infiltrations in his country, one of them being his own goddamn secretary.
Hiruzen let him know that he knew the Raikage had his men in his territory as well, and should he wish, he could not only kill them off, but also wage war and keep check on him forcefully.
After various talks, the Raikage and Hiruzen recovered a positive relationship but only after the Raikage pulled his men out of Konoha, except the secretary as Hiruzen grew quite foond of her, and cut off the treaty with Iwa.
Hiruzen also promised to not invade his land with shinobi as well.
But he never swore.
That's where our protagonist, Naruto, comes in.
Both the Kages kept their guard up and cross checked all their office workers and close ones consistently for a few years after this event, as they both knew the nature of Kages was manipulative.
They wouldn't calmly agree to not keep tabs on the other, which went against every single thing they knew.
Around 5 years after, the midnight massacre occurred, and Naruto's prowess as a shinobi was scarily discovered.
And he was a 12 year old child. Emphasis on "child".
Hiruzen knew he wasn't from the Raikage, having been there his whole life from birth, and didn't have any doubts about his loyalty.
The perfect infiltration device.
Without a thought Hiruzen sent him to the land of Waves, a last check to test his strength.
Passed with flying colors.
In 2 weeks, Naruto's team will pass Week 10, and in 2 years, he'll be 14. By 14, he would have enough experience with infiltration to be able to infiltrate the Raikage's rankings.
But a larger problem occurred to the old man.
"What if he became too good to be wasted on the Raikage?"
Hiruzen did not have an answer. For a long time he didn't.
Week 10 passed and he still had no clue, and was about to give up thinking about it, until he set his gaze on Sasuke.
14 in 2 years applied to two people of outstanding prowess. Naruto, and Sasuke.
It fit perfectly. Should Sasuke improve his infiltration skills as well, then should Naruto become too unexpendable for Hiruzen, Sasuke could fit right in.
But that means he's giving away the last of the Uchihas to the Raikage.
"The Uchihas were never meant to survive anyway."
"The eyes can be kept without the person, it's only the eyes that matter."
"We don't need Sasuke. Just call back Itachi when we need an Uchiha."
Dark thoughts plagued Hiruzen. It ravaged his logic, but let him make the difficult decisions easily.
Now with his own voice, he ceased his thoughts and settled on a decision.
"At the age of 14, Sasuke will invade The Raikage's domain and remain there for the majority of his life as a centerpiece of the Hokage's force within the land of lightning. This is final."
And so, the plan was set and sealed.
XXX
Naruto was surprised when he got an infiltration Mission from Hiruzen.
Kakashi didn't care all that much, but he was happy that the mission was a Team-Solo mission.
Three main types of missions were given to teams.
Team-Team
Team-Solo
Solo-Solo
The first one, was basically asking for them to work as a team. The third one was asking for them to ask solo.
The second one, Team-Solo, meant they worked alone, and kept all communication and connection between the members minimal and extremely sparingly.
Essentially it's working solo with extra steps.
Since Sasuke was a Solo Operative type, the team was bound to crumble should they have been assigned a Team-Team.
Kakashi had no doubts about Naruto and himself though, should it have been a Team-Team, but the weakest link would be the death of them all.
Coming back to the topic, the mission was also located in the Eastern Continent.
It was unventured lands, seen only by a few shinobi. Currently, the land of fire controlled the eastern boundary of the Western continent, therefore, the route to the Eastern Continent inevitably meant having to cross Konoha. And Hiruzen was adamant in keeping the Eastern Continent to himself.
It was a land of untapped resources and people.
New fighting styles, new cultures, new locations, new everything! If integrated well into his domain, it will only further the prosperity of Konoha.
Why was Hiruzen sending Kakashi's team for this pivotal mission, over the VIP-ANBU task force though?
Kakashi paid no heed to this question. A mission was a mission.
And it's always hard to understand the mind of a ruler.
As such, Team 7 set out on their first A-rank mission as a team.
Naruto made pace from Konoha to the Port where he'll start the water part of the journey.
It was around a 50 day trip at normal ANBU pace, of which easily 48 of those days would be on water.
The blonde reached well in time before his team, and let his shadow clones follow Kakashi and Sasuke.
Meanwhile, Naruto had to think of a way for Sasuke and Kakashi to maintain standing on water for 48 days.
Currently, only Naruto could withstand that level of chakra expenditure, as even Kakashi would not make it past day 30.
Since IN was constantly improving chakra control for 10 weeks, around a ⅕ of a year, his chakra control was enough to hold the coating on his feet consistently.
Even better, he could give the tasks of maintaining the chakra coating to IN entirely and not have to worry about it.
Boat was too slow however, as a 50 day trip would maybe increase to a trip lasting over a year.
Water currents, wind currents, breaks, unnatural occurrences, natural disasters, and all sorts of things would need to be managed by boat.
Not Naruto's style.
So, being the gung-ho person he is, he lifted the boat up onto his shoulders, and coated the bottom of the boat with chakra.
While it may seem like a useless measure, to give a water walking skill to a vehicle made to cross through water, it was genius.
Naruto placed it onto the water, and tapped it ever so slightly, and it glided 15 meters onto the water.
Perfect.
After praising IN for his results in chakra control, Naruto retrieved the boat from the water.
It was a large boat for 5, a slightly tight ride if 6, and cramped if 7 with space for luggage still.
If Naruto travelled at a fast pace, pushing the boat along, and STILL taking total 2 hour breaks and stopping at night, it was at most a 25 day trip.
Utilizing the Water Surface Bullet Jump (featured last chapter), 20 day trip.
Amazing really.
But it was still an hour before the other reached Naruto, so he spent his time well.
He pulled out a kunai, and checked the blade.
"No edge whatsoever…"
He was daring enough to stab it into his palm, and only a little blood came out.
That's when it occurred to him, he was using steel alloy!
Steel alloy was really sharp, but it had to be refined and pure steel alloy for it to have a long-lasting edge.
Back in his world, pure and refined was considered obvious to give, as the idea of normal steel alloy was practically extinct.
Sighing, he cursed himself and sharpened his kunai for the 3rd time this week.
It had become so bad, the Kunai lost 7% of its mass from just sharpening.
It was so bad, Naruto began to believe that kunai made of wood would last longer.
No matter.
He won't be using them once he transforms into a civilian in the Eastern Continent.
But similar to how addicts take a little dose to calm themselves, Naruto sharpened his kunais regardless as a way of feeling like he could escape this shithole of a world. It was just him, the stone, and the Kunai.
Slide forward, Pull backward while Applying pressure. 3 fingers on the blade, keep it steady. Thumb rested to give the blade an angle on the stone. 10 strokes, then flip the blade over, 10 strokes on another side. Then spin the blade to get the other blade edge of the kunai, rinse and repeat.
It was a 5 minute process that calmed him.
5 minutes later, Naruto was bored shitless.
He decided to go snoop around a bit. Just a bit. It was 45 minutes before Kakashi reached him, and he had already prepped the boat and finished all the preparations from his side.
He walked around the deserted dock where they were to leave, and entered the sole building in the area.
Well of course Naruto entered. And unfortunately, there was nothing interesting there.
There was a table, upon which there was a pen and paper, and a long extinguished candle.
The paper was empty and was rectangular in shape, not a scroll.
The pen was irregular as well. It looked as though it were Green Falcon Feather, and sharpened at the end, and then dipped in ink.
Naruto picked it up and tried writing with it on his palm, and the ink flaked off the pen and fell onto his hand.
"Aah, so you dip it in fresh ink and then you scratch it on the paper and it writes!"
He gazed upon the paper, and on it were words clearly written in a different lexicon. The ink was black and dark and clear.
But the thing was…
Naruto knew all the languages in this continent, at least what they looked like.
Not a single letter matched a single language on his record.
Meaning this language was from somewhere else.
The Eastern Continent.
Instantly, Naruto widened his eyes slightly, crouched low, pulled out a kunai, and sharpened all his senses, while pulsing his chakra out.
He calmed his nerves down and sighed.
The paper was whitened terribly by the Sun, and the ink on the paper was faded. And the candle wax that had dripped onto the dish around the candle was hard.
No one has been here for easily 30-40 years.
Naruto questioned why no one had been here before?
This wasn't like an unknown area, as Hiruzen himself told him to use the boat in this pier.
Naruto understood the situation.
The person who lived here probably got caught on a patrol or something, and after a while, he/she spilled about the eastern continent.
Where was this man though now? Did he die, or is he an old man living peacefully in a small village? Maybe he went back…
… to the eastern continent.
Naruto couldn't help but grin widely at the idea of new lands, cultures, and ideologies so much different from this continent.
After a little bit more snooping around, he found a book written in the same lexicon as the one on the paper before. It was in the same handwriting and was visibly incomplete. The last written page was smeared blood and had droplets of water about the size of the tear. Something happened to this man as he was writing his next page…
Naruto's sharp mind went into overgear, thinking about possibilities and theories.
- you're overthinking it.
~ Seriously man, how do you think that fast? It's like, BOOM one idea, and then BOBOBOBOBOOOOM seven more right after!
IN spoke with sound effects.
'S-S-Shut up!'
Yes, the identity crisis hits hard sometimes.
With the short embarrassment, Naruto made his way outside and started practicing his taijutsu till Kakashi and Sasuke reached.
SBSBSBSBS(Story Break)
They only recently left land and thanks to Naruto's speedy pushing, the Konoha land couldn't be seen even with Sasuke's eye-glass.
"We really left Konoha for good huh?" said Sasuke, snapping his eyeglass close for the fifth time.
"The whole goddamn continent man. The whole continent," said Naruto satirically, but partially in awe himself.
"Oye! Naruto!" said Kakashi, "This doesn't feel like we're in the ocean… The boat doesn't rock when waves crash into our side, we don't tilt forward when we hit an ocean bump, I'm not even feeling sea-sick! I practiced a bunch of sea-shanties but I can't sing them in this mood." He whined like a child, pouting.
Kakashi laid down in the abundant space.
The Boat has two stories, a deck, and a high level. The Deck was nice and flat and had some walking room, as well as a pole hook for a mast to let the wind carry it. On the end of the deck came a room. The room had a large door that closed it off but if kept open, made the room become no more than a covered part of the deck. It had 3 bunk beds and a 5 part chest.
In case of rain, there were hooks from the top corner of the room to the other end of the boat to hoist a large waterproof sheet over the ship.
There was a ladder from the room to the roof, which was guarded by rails, and has the steering wheel (+ mechanism) attached to it. It also had a thick rope that one could pull to drop/raise the anchor, and a pedal under the wheel to rotate the mast, along with many other neat features.
Unfortunately, it was not covered by the waterproof cloth and was vulnerable to the rain.
The boat was overall a really high class 5 man short-trip boat.
The three shinobi had to survive this boat and ocean for 20-something days. It was quite the task.
However, the real struggle was the boredom.
Day 8:
Sasuke was reading the book he brought the 3rd time around. It was a short novel, and rather captivating, but he's read it so many times before he even came to this trip, at home, that he regretted not taking a fresh, large novel.
However, even he refrained from touching Kakashi's bag of 20-something books from a very infamous "Icha Icha" series.
Currently, Naruto was practicing with Sasuke.
"Today is an important lesson for you. I'll teach you a famous technique from taijutsu master Shin De'Amoore, called Definite Pre-Counter."
"Huh?"
"You've practiced 'Reading' before right? To move after seeing the other's motion. And you also currently use 'Predicting' which is fighting by predicting the opponent's move."
"Yeah."
"And I've barely managed to cram down the muscular formation of Shinobi and how each one works into your head."
Sasuke nodded, still confused as to why he'd bring that up now.
"Well look here."
Naruto raised his arm so that Sasuke could see the full length. Then flattened his hand out, and slowly clasped with all his strength.
"You saw how my forearm muscles moved? Here look again."
He slowly unclenched and then clenched again.
Sasuke nodded, he could name all the muscles that moved, as well as their main uses in taijutsu. "Yeah, the muscles moved."
Naruto sighed, "Pay more attention, look at the movement that occurs when I'm not moving."
Naruto let Sasuke observe his still hand, and then he started unclenching when Sasuke's eyes lightened up.
"Those two muscles moved right before all motion occurred! The muscles used for clenching moved!"
"Good job. Every movement will have a 'Set-up tension' within the muscles before the movement occurs. This tension prepares the muscles needed to perform the action so that they can work properly when the time comes. Set-up Tensions happen in Taijutsu as well."
Naruto went through the motions for a simple kick slowly. And let Sasuke see the Set-up motions.
"For a movement that has multiple motions, like a kick, multiple set-up tensions will be done.
Now check this out."
Now he went through the motions for a front kick, which, unlike the normal kick, whips out directly in front of you at a 90-degree angle.
However, the first two motions are quite similar to the normal kick.
"There was a slight difference between the tension in the front kick…"
There was a pregnant pause, and Sasuke finally let it click.
"I can read these instead of the movement itself! I can figure out their next move before it happens!"
Naruto smiled.
"How naive."
"Huh?"
Let me explain as the author. While Naruto has a lean body, meaning high density, lean muscles and not big bold macho muscles, they hold immense power and therefore move more than the average "powerful muscle"; therefore all muscle movements are REALLY prominent when Naruto moves.
"Kakashi-sensei, over here please."
"Waddaya want?" Kakashi said seriously.
"Go through the motions for a normal and front kick slowly please, for Sasuke."
Kakashi obliged, and after the two kicks were finished, Sasuke was clearly baffled.
"Do people not have set-up tensions or something?"
"Sometimes, Set-up tensions aren't easy to spot like mine are. And that is where experience comes in."
"What do I need to do?"
"Get beat up a lot of times without fighting back, and never close your eyes." Without a moment's notice, Naruto kicked his face.
Sasuke shakily got back up on his feet… only to sweep them off again.
"Keep your eyes open! Watch my muscles!"
Sasuke frowned, he was angry, but now he transferred his anger into focusing on the muscles.
He watched Naruto's legs and got hit by a punch square to the face.
With all the willpower Sasuke had, he kept his eyes open and stared at muscles of the arm that punched him, watching how the muscles moved.
As the onslaught occurred, much to Sasuke's pain and Kakashi's sub-par thrill and stupor, Naruto continued his lesson.
"Shin De'Amoore was not actually considered talented at taijutsu for the majority of his career as a jounin. He managed to barely pass the examinations into the next level thanks to his teammates and willpower, but also because of his secret weapon.
This man had one thing that kept him alive as a jounin till he was in his late 60s.
The godsent skill of awareness. A man who was so aware of everything that he could comprehend more about his surroundings than he ever sensed with any of his 5 senses. A man who never blinked, flinched, ducked, or even instinctively dodged under the face of danger."
Kakashi, who became enthralled already, asked, "Well how did he become a taijutsu master?"
Naruto grinned, "In his mid-20s, the peak of life, he gained his super reflexes."
Kakashi frowned and let Naruto continue.
"He didn't lose his awareness, however, so now, he sensed danger at a greater level than other people. And faster. So fast, he sensed danger before the danger was even allowed to form. Yet without experience with controlling and managing instinctive reflexes, he was flinching left and right to all sorts of things. But he also knew what he was flinching too.
With a little practice, he could control his flinches to the level of a normal shinobi. And not just that, but counteract.
He could sense a punch from a mile away, dodge it well in advance, and then counterstrike!"
"A perfect balance," muttered Kakashi.
"Of course! His awareness in a battle let him know all the details he needed to know about his enemies' attacks, and his minimal skill in taijutsu carried him the rest of the way."
"So he was phony in a sense too?"
"Hey! Only judge the results you know." Naruto grinned.
The man who currently having the time of his life, Sasuke, getting beat up mercilessly on a boat with no land for a few thousand miles, was growing.
Within half an hour, Sasuke was already reading the motions in the tensions of very simple attacks, like punches and kicks, but couldn't react in time.
45 minutes later, Sasuke was already dodging some of the simple attacks by a hairsbreadth. Obviously, with predicting and reading, the dodging was a lot wider and had a greater margin of error, but one thing was for certain, this current method gave him more confidence in his dodges than any of the other two.
Sasuke grinned past his bruised face.
'I sense good things happening to me.' he thought to himself before he finally got hit unconscious.
Day 16:
Sasuke had hit a wall with his new Taijutsu Technique, but not until he managed to perfectly dodge simple attacks and two hit combos perfectly, as well as get a dodging rate of 30% with 3 hit combos.
Naruto worked double time, and within 4 hours, They will be reaching the shores of the Eastern Continent.
Unfortunately, the path they took, led them straight to a port city. And judging by the fact that 3 medium-sized boats launched to greet them the moment the city saw the boat, they were compromised.
Naruto and Kakashi were moving like bees around the ship, getting all their stuff ready to abort the ship prematurely. Sasuke had packed minimally, so he was keeping an eye out. Naruto was prepping certain talismans that he brought the materials for.
"Their ships seem to be powered by an automatic force, not chakra. A bit slower than ours, and judging by the pace, they don't know this is a manned ship."
"How do you know what pace they'd go if they did know there were people in this ship?" Naruto spoke.
"The gears in that machinery can clearly go faster."
"Huh?" Naruto said, ignoring it, but he kept a mental note that Sasuke has a knack for mechanics.
"Anyways, Sasuke! Kakashi! Over here!" he waited for them to gather around. "These are clothes that were tailored to look like the clothing in this continent going by the info we have. It has space for 2 kunais and a shuriken. For emergencies only, remember that. And secondly, we don't know the language, so impersonate a mute until we learn the language. Use hand motions and sounds only!
"Lastly, these are markers." Naruto spoke as he pulled out 9 tags. "Each marker is connected to our chakra signatures, and will alert us the moment you activate it from anywhere. When the marker is activated, DO NOT MEET UP! The marker is a call to abort the mission. The second marker will tell you where to meet, and if a 3rd marker is placed, then it means that location is compromised. Understand?"
"Yup."
"Now quickly change, and jump. We swim the rest of the way."
After quickly changing, They all stood at the border of the ship they spent 2 weeks and a half in together.
"This is goodbye then for a bit."
They were not going to be talking to each other verbally for at least a year. And they were going to be completely alone for a longer time than that.
It was hard really to pull this off, but it had to be done.
"For Konoha," Kakashi said, giving his eye a smile, mask still on his face.
"For Konoha," Sasuke repeated.
Naruto refrained from repeating. Instead, he spoke something else.
"For a new land."
They nodded.
And then they jumped.
The moment they hit the water, they split and swam to different areas outside Port City.
Sasuke and Kakashi went to the edges of the city, near the outskirts. However, Naruto went straight for the center. He felt he could handle it.
After a few minutes, he reached the city safe and sound.
Around the city was a large stone wall with a path along the top of it where the soldiers kept watch. However, there was no such thing on the Sea-border, making it easy to infiltrate from the sea.
Instead, there was another method against that.
ON white horses, galloping around the city wearing silver armor and carrying greatswords proudly, while flaunting their crest on the chest, they were the "police" of this city. Naruto could tell however, they were no mere police. They were a grand fighting force, and quite the opponents. One main peculiarity was however the chakra flowing inside them.
In fact, it couldn't be considered chakra. Sure it flowed through the same parts and ways Chakra did, but it was more dense and slow.
If chakra was a rapid typhoon that battered with continuous hits, this was a tsunami that devastated everything in one blow.
Naruto raised the hood of his clothing and dried himself off in an alleyway.
The roads were paved with cobblestone and the buildings were in a very different style than Konoha's.
(A/N: search up "anime medieval building" and go to images for a representation of what kind of location the Eastern Continent is.
It's European Medieval STYLE, not exactly.)
After a quick dry off, Naruto made his way into what looked like a plaza. Little stalls slightly similar to Ichiraku's ramen and flimsy enough to be knocked down by one of his kicks, had shopkeepers proudly advertising their own goods.
Naruto didn't need to know the language to notice the signature look of an advertiser.
He roamed aimlessly, slowly picking up on things from this world.
Just to be clear, this world's language will be in Normal text, whereas Naruto's language will be italicized.
"Thank you"
Was "Thank you"
"Your Welcome" or "Don't mind it"
Was "You're Welcome"
And others.
Naruto went to a stall to test this out. He flexed his mouth muscles and formulated a sub-par accent in his throat.
"I… want this…"
"Mkay! One green apple coming right up! Delicacy of the city Wooderias. Would you like a red apple too good sir? These come straight from the city right below us Oakshine."
Naruto was stumped. He accidentally responded in Japanese to avoid agreeing to anything.
"Ya" (Romanization, but basically means no in Japanese).
"Okay then, 1 green apple and 1 red apple coming right up. That'll be 5 marks!"
Naruto pulled out a subtle transformation, using a loose strand of his clothing, Naruto transformed it into a bag of marks. He then pulled out 5 gingerly and placed them on the countertop.
The man beamingly took them and handed him a paper bag with two apples as 'requested' and a sticker tape to keep the bag closed.
"Thank you…"
"You're welcome!"
He received the bag and walked away calmly.
His performance was subpar but the results were satisfactory. And that wasn't enough for Naruto.
Angrily, the blonde took a bite out of the green apple and savored the taste.
As expected, it tasted like all the other green apples he's had.
After finishing the apple, he went into an alleyway and started running around the city full speed to get to know its layout.
The city was divided into many sections. There was a residential area, entertainment area, industrial area, etc.
At the center of the city was a palace for the reigning individual and royal blood.
Near the end of the entertainment area was a small Red Light District.
Naruto quickly jumped onto the walls, and using a physical technique, allowed him to blend into the shadows.
He noticed that there was a pathway that connected to the entrance of the wall.
Only one pathway per each of the 3 entrances.
Naruto finished snooping around, and went back into the plaza, where he saw a knight.
Automatically, the response was to hide, but Naruto suppressed his guilty conscience. And calmly stood still amongst the crowd.
The Knight cleared his or her throat to make a speech, and spoke.
"Dear Citizens of Derosse City, I bring bad news. 2 or 3 hours ago we spotted a manned ship, headed right for us.
"3 individuals, characteristics and details not available, aborted the ship as we approached them, leading us to believe they had something to hide.
"If you've seen any suspicious individual, please report it to me"
There was silence, and a shopkeeper raised his hands.
"There was a funny looking child buying two apples from me. He seemed like a native a speaker of English but something was terribly off about the way he spoke. He also wore a weird looking robe that looked like it's from Demberlin."
The knight looked shocked and Naruto realized something was happening.
He was going to take off the moment an opportunity arose.
The knight now started scanning the crowd with energy infused eyes. It wasn't chakra, but it was some force like it.
Eventually, the eyes reached Naruto, who was wearing the robe similar to the ones the military issues from Demberlin.
The knight unsheathed his or her sword, and Naruto started to act shocked, surprised, and scared.
"You- step out!"
Naruto took long slow strides and pushed past the crowd of scorning faces.
He remained calm and slowly came face to face with the knight.
"What is your name?" The knight was loud and pride laced his/her voice. Naruto could guess what the knight was asking.
"Naruto."
The Knight frowned.
"That is not a name from Demberlin?"
Naruto was now stumped, what was it saying?
-Follow my lead, respond as I say, phonetic to phonetic.
'Okay'
Naruto cleared his throat, and committed to following Tsunizu.
"I am from the jungle up north. I passed through various cities in order to reach this one. Some include Wooderias, Oakshine, and Demberlin."
"How did you get into this city then if you came from Demberlin?"
"I scaled the wall!"
"Huh?"
Naruto got the sense that Tsunizu was doing something very wrong with him.
"Well there was a wall that I had to cross, so I climbed over it. Is it not normal?"
The Knight was baffled. He crossed through the wall filled with soldiers?
"Well it's not that hard. Just climb right up and then climb back down!"
"Did you see any soldiers?"
"Yeah, lots of 'em,"
The knight was shocked. He just casually avoided over a hundred soldiers in plain sight?
"Could you show me?"
Naruto nodded, and then he spoke.
"Look away for a sec, just. Just a little time will do."
The Knight obliged, and turned away.
-Naruto! HIDE QUICKLY!
Without a thought, Naruto shifted his body and flared out his chakra in a sense to reflect the light around him, making him invisible to perfection. Then he ran silently using his skill, Movement Art: Silent Stepping Stone and Movement Art: Crowd Weaving.
He made sure not to run away, only hide his presence.
The Knight turned its head back after a split second and looked around, and couldn't find him.
The people standing around him didn't know where he disappeared to as though he poofed away.
"Okay, I believe you, come out."
The Knight peered into the crowd.
"Over here!"
The Knights head snapped to beside him, twisting the torso as well, to notice Naruto petting his Horse's head.
"Amazing. Come with me!"
Naruto was confused, but upon Tsunizu's request, he hopped on the back of the horse agiley.
'No struggles getting on the horse Huh? Pretty smooth motions too.'
The horse started galloping and the Knight was super excited about something.
'TSUNIZU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!'
Tsunizu recited the event word for word in his language.
-With this, you will find something quite pleasing. Trust me and don't think about the mission right now.
Naruto sighed as it went against his nature.
Being a VIP ANBU brings about a sense of determination towards a mission, not easily abandoned.
Then again, Naruto boasted full control over his emotions.
As the two rode, Naruto calmly and slowly analyzed the chakra that flowed within the Knight.
He inserted his chakra into the horse and then using the horse as a medium, inserted his chakra into the Knight, then his chakra enveloped a piece of the Knight's and then he took it back to his own body.
The energy was not actually chakra or even in the same family.
It had a completely different spiritual composition, and this energy had different properties.
This chakra was far more dense and viscous, however, it also limited its own expenditure due to how viscous it was. It wasn't much more powerful, but also had an overwhelming effect.
If chakra was like getting hit by 100 jabs, this energy was like a single solid uppercut.
To compare, it had some pros, and some weaknesses, making it neither better nor worse than chakra.
The horse had reached the castle, and they safely passed through the castle gates.
Instead of going into the castle though, they entered something. That looked like a lavish barrack.
The Knight got off and Naruto followed, and the two walked into a large room with a big table. People were sitting at this table and discussing something.
They were all knights like the one Naruto was following.
Majority of them were male, and there were a few females. The one Naruto was following was probably a he, but he wore a large helmet that also distorted its voice. The chest plate and leg armor was too thick and heavy to make out any determining features.
The Knight unclasped a hook in the helmet, and with a push, popped it off HER head.
Beautiful straight black hair fell down her back, as pulling the helmet also undid her hair tie.
She had large red sharp eyes and luscious red lips with a prominent and slender jawline. Her lips were shaped into a half smile, and she looked somewhat approachable when she didn't make any facial expression. A beautiful woman as well.
She opened her mouth to breathe fresh air and enlarged canines were exposed.
Her eyes, canines, and jawline gave off a very wild, rogue, and beast-like look.
"Fire! Where have you been?" A female knight spoke.
The Knight named Fire responded.
"I found myself an apprentice ya know." She pointed behind herself, and directly between Naruto's eyes.
The knights sighed.
"Did you ask him?"
"Huh?"
"Did ya ask the young lass if he'd be your apprentice before you brought him here?" A male knight spoke.
"And why is he wearing the Demberlin Military Robe?"
"What is his name?"
"Do you even know the lad?"
"Bastard tales of Fire and her Treacherous Apprentice."
Fire sighed and threw some hair behind her shoulder. She clearly didn't care. Then she spoke.
"Listen here you dipshits. For five years you've been on my ass since I haven't gotten an apprentice yet, so I fu**ing went out and got one. You gonna have a goddamn problem with it Huh?"
Her talking constantly flared out her canines, and felt as though a wild beast was growling at them.
They quickly shut up and brooded amongst themselves.
The original knight who spoke up asked her again.
"Why is he wearing the Demberlin Military Robe?"
"I ASKED THAT!"
The two female knights simultaneously spoke.
"Shut it."
Fire responded.
"He's been on a trip from the jungles up north to here, passing a few cities including Demberlin."
"By passing do you mean?"
"Nope, literally just passing through."
"Ain't he honest" a Knight muttered sarcastically.
The female knight sighed.
"Well then Fire, if you think he's safe, then I'll let him be."
"Thanks…" Fire spoke sarcastically.
The female knight paid it no heed, but her energy started seeping out and started bombarding Fire and Naruto similar to how seeping heavy doses of Chakra into the air would do to others.
"Why did you pick him to be your apprentice?"
Fire grinned like a fox, showing her wild and cunning side, similar to how Naruto's features would be without all the baby fat.
"He's insane."
The room went pin-drop silent.
"Haven't heard that from you in a long time." The Knight spoke, then stared intently at Naruto, focusing the bombardment at him alone.
"Do you mind fighting me, Sir Rosetta William Ge'Wool, in a spar, under witness of Sir Fiera Dethorn?"
So Fire was actually a nickname for Fiera.
"Rose!"
"Let me do it" Naruto spoke, only hanging on thanks to Tsunizu interpreting the situation in real-time and telling him what to say.
"Brat, you don't know what shit you're spouting. I don't care if you got a few tricks up your sleeve, that's a member of the honorary Knight Force you're gonna go up against."
"So?" Naruto spoke, flaring his canines as he spoke too.
Fire was grinning internally when she heard that remark, but outside she let herself look pissed.
"Then go butcher your own ass."
Naruto snorted, and followed Rose and Fire onto a large clearing inside the building.
It had no boundaries, but was surrounded by the building in all 4 directions. There was a large ring in black, painted on, and numerous smaller rings, painted in red.
"Big or small?" She asked Naruto.
"Big" Fire responded for Naruto.
"Let the child respond."
Naruto repeated her words, "Big".
"Mkay."
They walked out into the black ring, and stood at the opposite rings.
Fire mouthed the word "run" to him, but Naruto didn't understand.
"At your call Fire." Rose spoke, and her hand hovered over the handle of her longsword.
"Start!"
-Fight her, Naruto.
'Understood'
Naruto nodded, as he understood what the situation was even without Tsunizu's translation.
Rose rushed in, fairly slowly for all shinobi from chunin above, but with massive force behind her steps.
She already pulled out her sword and trailed it behind her as she ran.
Naruto did not make any motion as she ran, much to both Rose's and Fire's shock.
Rose however would not abort her attack for a shock ridden child, she could hope that he got knocked out with this one hit of hers.
She swung fully and let the flat side of the blade hit him first. A very large blunt hitting force pushed him out of the ring as well.
Naruto glanced at the blade and decided 'now is a great time to move'
Naruto lunged forward and his stepping foot landed right between Rose's feet.
The movement now made two motions go through Rose's head.
1)step away from Naruto quickly
2) finish the swing!
Rose prioritized the first motion and pulled her hand back as she back stepped.
Naruto linged again, this time pulling his hands up in a boxing stance, and still keeping his forward foot between her feet.
Naruto dropped his shoulders and better guarded his face, and crouched a bit.
He then grabbed Rose's chest plate as she was about to back step again, and with his other hand, overhand punched her face in a wide power swing.
Naruto made sure not to use all his power, but even Sasuke fell unconscious at this punch at 10% power, and Sasuke's been hardened considerably by sparring with Naruto for so long.
Rose took the punch directly with her forehead, and her knees bent enough to be kneeling, but she remained solely on her feet, and pushed up.
After regaining her balance, Rose grabbed Naruto's hips, and attempted to chuck him away by brute force.
Despite being a shinobi, such forceful hands on combat was not unfamiliar to him.
He stabilized his footing and shifted his core weight downwards, as he let go of the chest plate and punched one arm away.
Then he kneed Rose, and kicked her away.
Eventually they made distance again and Rose got up. She picked up her longsword, which she had a dropped during the punch, and got into a defensive stance.
Naruto smiled, offensive attacking was his favorite.
He ran forward and jumped 45 degrees into the air, and cocked his fist back.
Rose prepped for the attack, when Naruto disappeared from sight, and reappeared from behind, fist still cocked, and eyes locked into the open spot in her back.
Rose's eyes shifted to see Naruto again, and quickly kicked backwards, only for her leg to pass through the air.
She looked back up and Naruto was back as though he never disappeared, but she was too off position to be able to properly receive and block the attack.
So committing to a motion, Rose lunged forward from her grounded foot in a really uncomfortable position.
She hit the ground hard but she rolled further upon impact so the force was less straining.
Rose quickly got up and prepped her sword again.
Naruto smiled, he was going to start having fun now.
Naruto cracked his knuckles, and his nonchalant nature blew away.
He bared his canines and crouched in a speed based attack style.
Next, he ran forward, far faster than anything Rose had seen before, and stopping his run 3 steps before he reached her, he lunged forward while spinning rapidly, and the moment he reached Rose, he extended his leg, and with all the force behind his spin and all the force in his leg he could muster; he kicked her brutally.
Naruto clicked his tongue when Rose sacrificed her forearm and shoulder guard to block it, but Naruto had only started.
He touched the ground again with his right foot only with his toe, before he slid around Rose and lunged at her back, punching it brutally.
Luckily, she placed her sword behind her and blocked the attack, shattering her sword into pieces.
"Agh!" She sighed, as she ripped off her useless forearm and shoulder guard from her arm and dropped her sword handle.
"Fine! I'll go a bit harder!"
In a moment, she was in front of Naruto, eyes flashing and full of vigor that aimed for victory.
She punched his abdomen and then kicked his shoulder, utilizing her thigh guard to further increase damage.
Naruto effortlessly took the punch in the abdomen, and blocked the kick, simultaneously ripping her thigh guard off.
The faster Naruto got the armor off, the faster his attacks would start hitting more.
However, with every piece of heavy armor gone, the Knight got faster.
Currently she was packing at a high chunin speed.
Naruto maintained his own through the barrage of attacks, blocking and dodging, and then when she was vulnerable, took off more and more armour.
10 minutes later, Rose was left with only her casual clothes, and Naruto was unscratched.
"Huff puff" Rose breathed deeply.
"My turn!"
Naruto blasted forward, and twisted his torso while uppercutting vigorously, hitting Rose in the jaw.
He then let Rose fly for a bit before he went under her, and then kicked directly upward into her back, launching her farther up, and at this point Rose was unconscious.
Needless to say, Naruto won.
Fire was beyond shocked, even impressed.
"I picked out one helluva brat."
Naruto looked curiously/cautiously at Fire, and walked out of the ring, making sure to step over Rose's unconscious body.
'Did I overdo it?'
The rest of the Knights who were watching were quite frankly astounded.
Fire asked Naruto, "Was that level of battle normal to you?"
Naruto responded, "I did fight a lot of Demberlin Knights and Mages when I told them I was coming here."
Fire laughed, and she grabbed Naruto's shoulder and dragged him along somewhere, the Knights Training Hall.
Naruto was curious too.
When they went inside, clashes of swords ringed across the area.
Knights were head to head, engaging in heavy, robust combat.
And two Knights locked in a standstill between swords wasn't uncommon at all.
It was very slow combat, but extremely powerful.
The dirt and dust on the stone floor jumped and shook thunderously with every hit.
It could be said that the hardest hitter in his continent could even rival Naruto's strength. Obviously this person has devoted his entire life to mastering that one single punch until he "reached peak" and would still be wiped by Naruto. And to be honest, his punch still falls a few hundred pounds short of Naruto's hard punch.
No one is more cracked than the Naruto I have designed. Believe it.
Fire patted Naruto's back and handed him a great sword.
She then called over a very muscular person with a similar body type as the Raikage (think Escanor in the sunlight), and pointed to Naruto, smiling.
"He's got the battle sense but it's not very chivalrous. That's where you come in."
The man had a very lush red-brown beard and moustache and neatly combed short hair.
He had a bandaid over his nose and sweat adorned all his muscles.
He had and maintained a light, friendly smile that made him seem super approachable and friendly despite his overwhelmingly intimidating body.
The man curled the ends of his moustache and thought.
Fire helped him out.
"I get it, it's hard to understand, but think of it like this. He's an assassin who's trying to switch over to the light."
Naruto noted, thanks to the help of Tsunizu, that assassins are what closely resemble the shinobi style, and they are not considered to be of the light. Whatever the light is.
The man nodded, his smile widened, almost creepily, and his moustache warped with his spreading skin.
"So I train him?"
"Yes"
The man glanced over Naruto's body.
He only saw weakness, as muscle mass was what distinguishes the strong.
Clearly he didn't realize that different methods of exercise build up muscle differently.
To be fair, a theory like that wasn't discovered until Naruto realized himself in a time much later.
The man gleefully picked up a wooden long sword. It was pretty long. The blade itself was the length of an entire Odachi, and it resembled a Zweihander. But distinctly a Long Sword.
Naruto hadn't fought with one of those for a long time.
The man examined its full blade.
Then abruptly swung it at Naruto, who had already disappeared and appeared behind his back, hand to his neck, his great sword dropped and left behind where he originally was.
"You really are an assassin huh… good."
Naruto let himself down from the large man's frame. He quickly ducked another slash, then side-stepped twice in the same direction.
For a sword of that length, the man was agile with it. He effectively used his weight and the sword's weight to deal devastating and fast blows. A fundamental understanding of raw physics.
He swung in a wide, large circle, and upon finishing the rotation, he planted both his feet, and impaled the sword into the hard floor, which he used as a handle to pick himself up with and kick at Naruto with both feet.
Naruto easily redirected the kick, but the man used the momentum of his body to unearth the sword and swing it behind him.
It was a genius maneuver, something Naruto had not been expecting from this brute type of person.
It wasn't all that great though.
Naruto sweeped the floor with his leg, effectively dodging the sword, and getting his leg under the airborne man.
In a swift motion, he kicked upward hard enough to break the spine of the poor man, but thanks to the raw muscle mass, internal damage was minimal. But he did get launched high into the air.
Now stunned from the heavy hit, the man had no choice but to use his absurdly large sword as a shield from the attack.
None came however, and instead, the blonde assassin found his way to the weapon rack.
'Oh shit…' the man thought to himself.
An assassin is infinitely more deadly with a knife or dagger than by himself.
After landing, the brute put his guard up, and flared all his senses to max.
Naruto confidently reached for…
'The hell?'
A long sword the exact same length as the one the man was holding.
Naruto lifted it up by the handle with great ease.
As the author let me remind you, this Naruto I have made, is designed to be… "hella cracked". For this context, "hella cracked" also includes a peerless brute strength.
The brute laughed with his soul.
"You ain't no assassin right?"
Tsunizu stopped translating so that he could focus on the match, so Naruto simply smiled dangerously at the man.
"Scary~"
They then settled into their stances in a flash and at that moment, they clashed swords.
Unsurprisingly, for us readers I mean, Naruto was overwhelming the poor Brute.
The brute eased his tension and ran alongside the right of Naruto's blade while keeping contact with it. He then reached the handle and attempted disarmament.
Naruto however broke off the contact, and spun to the left, opposite to the man, but quickly as to not make his back a vulnerable area, then smashed the flat part of the sword into the man's left, knocking him over into the wall 20-ish meters away.
Relentlessly, Naruto followed, and swung, with one hand, again, hoping to smash the Brute out of the building entirely.
The brute didn't allow it.
Blood came out of his mouth and he was bruised up and scratched up badly, but he wasn't bothered.
He created a ramp with his sword, and effectively redirected the sword upward, safely over him.
The sword lodged nicely into the wall, effectively shattering it into crumbles.
The roof slumped, and some of the tile work came undone.
Naruto decided that some jutsu work wouldn't hurt.
It was a simple substitution, used with such minimal chakra that even Naruto would not realize he had let out some chakra if he hadn't been paying attention…
He chucked his sword at the Brute, who effortlessly hit it away.
However, right before the Brute could in fact hit it away, Naruto used substitution and replaced himself with the sword. And using the swing of the brute, he landed on the moving sword and jumped behind him from over the shoulder like a rodent.
As the brute was still shocked from the sudden change, Naruto kicked the back of the Brute's head, right behind the cerebellum, and the Brite instantly lost his sense of balance, he stumbled forward as though he were intoxicated to no limits.
A simple second kick to the knee, and a heavy punch to the chest, and Brute was knocked down.
However, despite the knockdown, the Brute was well versed in his ground warfare, and instantly flipped and went into all fours. His head was lowered and his body low in general, similar to a tiger or lion crouching before a hunt.
He pounced and bit through the pain of numeral wounds shouting at him. His hands were outstretched as his raw frontal assault's main weapon.
Once in range of the blonde, he managed to grab his shoulders, and using this grip, he pushed ALL his body weight into the Blonde.
BOOM!
A gut punch, perhaps an uppercut rather than a punch due to the physical positioning of the two bodies, resonated the hall with pure sound.
But the one who received this brutal punch was not our hero.
Naruto's clothes fluttered violently in the wind, and his shirt eventually ripped itself off the body due to the air pressure it was subjected to. It revealed an insanely toned body with muscles that
His fist was nowhere to be seen, as it was lodged deeply into Brute's internal organs past the wall of trained muscle. The only evidence of a fist actually being there, was the pulsating veins on his forearms, as if to provide enough blood to the muscles that already went past the limits of a human body.
The impact itself was such a heavy one, the Brute couldn't even fly away. He just remained in a state of unimaginable pain on top of the Blonde's first until he got knocked out.
He pulled his hand out of the gut, and the tissue remained caved in even after.
It was day one for Naruto but he had already managed to get a near fatality. He was proud of himself.
He gazed upon the situation finally. Two battles in a row got his battle nerves all worked up and ready to work, so he forgot about everything else.
He would never be consumed by it unconsciously, but rather he allowed it this time. Naruto isn't an amateur after all.
All knights who were practicing had stopped their matches to watch the fight.
Naruto whistled at one, and pointed at the stretcher he had noticed before the fight. He snapped twice and motioned the universal "come here" hand signal.
The knight was pissed at this rude way of ordering him around, especially when he wasn't even his senior, more so even part of the Chivalric Order.
But upon seeing how badly their head was beaten.
Wait wait…
Did I mention that?
The brute Naruto just knocked out, was… the Grand Battlemaster of the Chivalric Order.
An honorary title to those who have proved to be the greatest, let's repeat that but bolded, the greatest at purely battle.
Grand Battlemaster Matthew Burke (AKA "the Brute").
With a 99% mission pass rate, and wielder of numerous Battler Awards (a badge given to people who display extreme prowess in fights), and the first person to win 2 Platinum Badges, an insignia that implies "Best of the Best".
This man, who is still only 34 and at his peak perhaps, was knocked out cold by a 12 year old.
Now I recognize that these so-called "geniuses" or "prodigies" don't seem like such when fighting Naruto.
They seem beatable by the average practitioner of the Shinobi Way.
Well, that's just because Naruto makes it look easy.
Quite frankly, his confidence and intimidating behavior allow him to size up and attack any adversary without precaution, and his foundational battle style, developed through countless hours of life and death battles, allow Naruto to gain the upper hand the moment he throws his first punch.
From there, our "prodigies" simply begin to struggle to gain the upper hand and start doing their thing before they get wiped out.
Needless to say, Naruto could OSK (one-shot kill) them whenever he wanted… so…. It's a losing battle to just fight against him.
As the knights gained their wits again to approach the blonde, a lone string of vibrant and moderately paced applause resonated.
Fire, who was watching the battle silently and with a keen eye, was beyond impressed. She obviously understood by now that she couldn't beat the boy, no matter what tactic she used or how hard she fought.
But what she could teach him was mana and mana warfare.
When she looked into the boy's body, there was no mana. Well duh, he uses chakra, but she thought he simply hadn't awakened.
(Btw, the mana Naruto picked up earlier already dissipated as it wasn't connected to the mana core, similar to how chakra dissipates if not connected to the chakra coil.)
For a person to gain mana, one must be awakened, in other words, they must be forcefully reconstructed on the spiritual level to be able to accept and cultivate mana.
And like chakra, a base level of mana is established upon awakening in accordance with your potential and innate compatibility. From there, efforts can be made to increase the maximum amount one can store, but it is a continuous and arduous process.
For many people going through an awakening, it is simply better to hope for a large base level. And the trashy thing is, there is no way of knowing your base level beforehand.
The catch is also that the Awakening Process costs about 40 Dryiv (the highest denomination of the currency, like the 100$ bill or the discontinued 500$ bill) which is the equivalent of 40,000,000 Marks. That's like buying 8 million green apples.
The average high middle class and below can definitely not afford it. Some low ranking nobles can barely try if they put everything they own of value up for sale. And even mid-ranking nobles can't leisurely spend on awakenings.
However, for people signing up to join the chivalric code, those who are deemed to have potential with mana are given an awakening free of charge. And if you don't have the potential then you still won't pay anything, but you are forced to join the magic corp under oath of loyalty till death.
Good stuff.
And right now, seeing Rose knocked out on her bed, and the Grand Battlemaster sprawled out on the floor with a frothing mouth, Fire was about to hail mary and shove Naruto into an awakening chamber the first chance she could get.
Screw potential, prospects like him need mana whatsoever in how much-so-ever quantity they can get in order to rise to greatness.
'Also on a side note,' Fire thought, 'I still need to find those three infiltrators…'
Chapter 7 End.
Should I change the name to Fyre? Fire seems kind of unnatural.
A) Yes
B) No
C) Change the name completely. (And please give your candidate)
D) Who needs names?
E) Karen
(Bonus F) The next chapter gives the backstory of Fire/Fyre/No Name/Karen. (One XXXXL Chapter with everything)
I actually want to do the Bonus F option regardless so that readers can better understand the culture of the eastern continent as Naruto explores it himself. And it can prove easier to create a multi-plot storyline and various other fun storytelling gimmicks.
Cya!